What’s The Greatest TV Commercial Of All Time!? S1 E13 TNT!

The Thursday Night Throwdown gang tackles the question: What’s The Greatest TV Commercial Of All Time!? Everyone remembers these “RTSLNE” ones:

“1984” from Apple Computer.

“Hey mister, do you want my Coke” featuring “Mean” Joe Greene.

“Where’s the beef” Wendy’s famous  1984 commercial.

But, did you have any of the other 11 commercials on your Power Rankings!? Listen and find out!

About the “1984” Apple Ad

As a 22 year old I saw this ad during the Superbowl and actually didn’t think much of it at the time because I wan’t into computers. I would grow to admire then love this ad as I learned more about “1984” and about Apple Computer. Here’s how Medium recently recapped the origins of the 1984 ad.

Jobs who was known for his extreme perfectionism asked for the perfect commercial for Macintosh launch.

“I want something that will stop people in their tracks’’ he said. “I want a thunderclap.”

It wasn’t an easy job to please him and reach his high expectations. If someone shows two versions of something that have little differences, he would call one version ‘great’ and the other one ‘shit’.

The heavy responsibility of creating the commercial was handed over to the advertising agency Chiat/Day which is now known as TBWA. As its creative director, there was this heavy bearded Steve-like lank named Lee Clow.

Clow discussed with Jobs an idea for the commercial inspired by the book 1984 by Jorge Orwell: ‘Why 1984 won’t be like 1984′

Jobs loved the idea. It represented Apple’s and his rebellious attitude against authority.

After its initial storyboarding session Jobs asked Apple then CEO John Sculley to offer a giant pile of $ 500,000 just for the shooting. Sculley who was eager to please Jobs gave his permission for the advertising budget.

He also approved a million-dollar budget to buy 2 ad slots, a 1-minute slot, and a 30-second slot at the Super Bowl XVIII finale.

The ad was shot in London by Riddley Scott who directed the American Neo-fiction movie Bladerunner, which wasn’t an instant hit but is now considered a masterpiece.

The set featured Anya Major as the heroine and David Graham as the big brother. But for skinheads, they didn’t have much budget to afford a professional cast. So they hired 200 people from the national front — a far-right fascist political party in Britain.

Enjoy this episode of Thursday Night Throwdown and if you have an idea for an episode or want to be on the panel, drop me an email line!

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